Stephen Crane Quotes

The essential problems remain the same... The kids I write about are asking for the same things I wanted. They want two contradictory things. They want to be the same as everyone else, and they want to be different from everyone else. They want acceptance for both.

People tell me what to do every single day. They think I'm boring. I'm Disney kid. So, there's that.

Call it stubborn, call it ignorant, call it what you want, but I don't think I have to join a particular faith or culture or creed or religion just to fit in.

People are always going to identify with what it's like living in society and have people judge you in certain ways, and how you can be strong enough to be your own person and all those good things.

I think pop culture underestimates people. The message is, 'Being yourself is the worst thing you could possibly be.' But people are still attracted to it.

When I first got into the league, I tried to fit in. Now I don't care.

If you let society and your peers define who you are, you're the less for it.

We have to wake up. We have to refuse to be a clone.

I think it would be great if everybody could be out. But it's such a personal choice. People have to do it at their own speed. I respect that.

I know that many people kill off their real personality just to fit into this society, but why do we have to compromise? I never understood that. I decided to try to be myself and to live by my own values rather than those of others.

I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It's just funny.

You know, you don't have to look like everybody else to be acceptable and to feel acceptable.

I always tried so hard to fit in, and then I figured out that I didn't want to fit.

I got to the point where I was fed up with so many people telling me how and who I was supposed to be.

Socially I never was an outsider. I have never thought of the conflict element before frankly, but perhaps it was wanting to belong, and at the same time wanting to retain one's own personality.

I've learned a lot about how people have to fight through their whole lives just to be themselves.

I've always wanted to be older, as I think it's all right to be a little bit odd when you're out of your 20s.

We all want to be special, to stand out; there's nothing wrong with this. The irony is that every human being is special to start with, because we're unique to start with. But we then go through some sort of boot camp from the age of zero to about 18 where we learn everything we can about how not to be unique.

I was always a class clown, so I never had trouble fitting in; I just had trouble finding out where I really wanted to be.

Two or three things I know for sure, and one is that I'd rather go naked than wear the coat the world has made for me.

Fitting in is boring. But it takes you nearly your whole life to work that out.

I dyed my hair about 42 different colours, and kids can be pretty judgmental about people who are different. But instead of breaking down and conforming, I stood firm. That is also probably why I was unhappy.

Human beings have an inalienable right to invent themselves; when that right is pre-empted it is called brain-washing.

I'm not different for the sake of being different, only for the desperate sake of being myself. I can't join your gang: you'd think I was a phony and I'd know it.

Life is very, very short, and you can choose to live it how you want. You can choose to dumb yourself down and not express yourself just so you can fit in, just so people won't dislike you.